Season 1 Episode 7: Making reservations in hell
Episode Description: Veronica's revelation causes Logan to walk on eggshells until she needs his help. A visit to the bank gets Duncan on edge. Weevil and Logan get detention together leading to more than anyone bargained for
A/N: I own nadda
Logan POV
I read the note with a groan before falling back on my bed. Have you ever had a nightmare where your nemesis finds out your deep dark secret? Turns out my nightmare is reality. Although most of the night was spend in a pain-killer induced haze, faint memories of cool fingers cleaning and soothing my swollen skin seem too real to be imagined. I dress cautiously as I re-read the note: Call me if you need anything.When I imagine her saying it her eyes narrow and look at give me that do-as-I-say-or-else look. I dress slowly layering on multiple shirts to prevent any accidental exposure. One nosey classmate is more than enough.
"Logan honey time for school." My mom opens the door with an overly large smile and I kiss her on the cheek obligingly before I head into hell. There is a very slim chance that Veronica kept her mouth shut. Above loyalty, love and trust Veronica values justice. Nothing would be most just than walking into school to find pictures of my scarred back taped to my locker like the pictures of her drunken night at Shelley's I tacked up on hers, or hearing the rumor mill buzzing about how Logan's Dad beats him, or at least Logan pretends his Dad beats him.
There is nothing taped to my locker and nobody is giving me a wide-berth. Color-me confused but do nothing isn't exactly Veronica's MO anymore. I open my locker to find a bottle of Advil sitting on the bottom shelf. Maybe her idea of justice was to make me feel so guilty that I deserve the beating more than I already do.
"So are you coming with us today?" Duncan's voice breaks into my stream of consciousness. "The safety deposit box. I mean it's probably a dead end but.." Duncan looks at the Advil "Hey are you ok man?"
"It's nothing, migraine you now it is." Duncan just nods sympathetically knowing full well the frequency of my headaches. "I don't think Veronica will want me around man just let me know if it's something important." Duncan looks like he is trying to choose between anger and concern
"What did you do Logan?" His voice is tired like he's pissed he's going to have to give me another lecture about how to act towards Veronica.
"I didn't do anything I just –" How exactly do I put this "Common man I mean she hates my guts." Duncan doesn't seem completely convinced but promises he'll let me know if anything important happens at the bank. Tired and sore I head of to take the English test I have not studied for.
In general I like English. I have always been good with words and reading and speaking both involve a lot of subtext. I'm good with subtext. Half-way through the test I notice Weevil looking at my test.
"Don't they teach you manners in ESL?" I grumble back at him
"If I was gonna cheat don't you think I'd pick someone smart?" Ah yes the old stand-bys when in doubt insult a guy's intelligence or penis.
"If you was gonna?" I didn't say I was above the old stand-bys. The teacher, who is obviously sadistic, gives us both detention and feels the need to remind me that the glow of my father's wealth won't follow me out of high school. If only it were true.
Veronica's POV
Logan is avoiding me. Not only that, he is also really bad at it. He'll be walking my direction, notice me, look like a deer in the headlights then bolt the opposite way. I haven't told Duncan. I figured that if Logan is acting this freaked out and I haven't told anyone yet, telling Duncan will make him head for the hills.
"Ready?" Duncan asks leaning by my locker. A smile and nod before following him to his car. On the ride there Duncan tells me that Logan told him I wouldn't want to have him around. To Duncan I chalk it up to Logan using good judgment for once in his life. Privately, I wonder why he's going through such trouble simply to avoid me.
The bank manager is nice enough as we, ironically, play the role of brother and sister looking for closure by empty their mother's safety deposit box. Duncan's nervous and understandably so. If there is incriminating evidence in my mom's safety deposit box it is almost certain that Jake Kane would have been involved in covering up Lily's death.
There's nothing too exciting in there, her wedding ring, a small bar of gold that was a family heirloom and a thin manila folder. I check through the folder immediately changing my mind about the importance of its contents.
"Oh my god Duncan." Pictures of me with a target drawn on my face stare back at me. Is this why mom left? Who would want to threaten me? Could it be the same person who killed Lilly? Duncan looks as scared as I feel. I swear his eyes widen with every picture.
"Do you think my father…" He is torn between shock and anger at the thought that his father could have done this.
"We don't know who did this. It could be completely unrelated." The pictures were taken around the time that Lily was murdered. We are about to narrow it down by finding out the date of book week and realizing that one of the photos were taken outside a counseling office I went to every Thursday right after Lily died. All we need to do now is check the angle of the shot and see whose bill matches the time of the impromptu photo shoot.
Logan's POV
There are few things in life I hate more than being stuck in detention with Weevil Navarro while he gives me a lecture on classism at Neptune High. Our poker game, designed to pass the time a little smoother, simply gives us a full week's detention. It's lucky that nothing below a suspension shows up on my parent's radar or Veronica would really be in for a treat. Suddenly a white-faced Duncan runs into the classroom basically dragging a too-calm Veronica with him.
"Is this Reno or detention?" Veronica asks me with a light smile.
"Would you believe the best of both?" I reply grateful for her light snarking and attempt at normalcy.
"Really not the time to be joking" Duncan says in his best next-president voice. Veronica glances semi-nervously at him then throws her hands up in surrender. "Look at these." Duncan hands me a manila folder. I look at him quizzically before opening the folder and looking through the pictures of a younger Veronica in a riffle site. What the fuck.
"What the hell is this?" I demand as Weevil takes the photos before either of us can stop him. "Veronica?" I know I sound mad where I should sound concerned but it's not every day you see your semi-friends picture framed by a rifle.
"I don't know." She responds quietly.
"Who sent them?" Weevil is all in a huff now. "Cause me and my boys will take care.."
"No" Veronica cuts Weevil off mid-sentence. Personally, I think it is the first good idea Weevil has had, ever.
"We can use this to our advantage." Veronica wants to use people threatening to murder her to our advantage. "Plus these photos are old. I don't think an attack is exactly imminent." Oh well in that case.
"Veronica are you insane?" I explode shoving the pictures in her face. "You're saying you want to use yourself as bait for some crazy riffle-site drawing, stalker who is basically threatening to kill you?" Duncan winces a little at the last part but Veronica's face just grows stonier.
"I'm saying that we need to find out who did this and why before we let Weevil go all Hells Angels on them." I can tell that this is a plan she already discussed with Duncan who nods along but seems none too pleased. Weevil simply hands her a piece of paper with all the guys from his little bike club written down on it instructing her to call him should the need for protection.
"Hold it Weevs if anyone is doing any protecting it's us." I snarl getting an amused eyebrow raise from Duncan and leaving Veronica totally confused.
"Yeah you white boys really know how to strike fear in people's hearts."
Veronica POV
"Boys, boys. I am not a damsel in distress I'll be fine." I'll go to the restaurant tomorrow and we'll go from there. Logan scuffs his feet on the floor giving one of those asinine half-smiles
"You're not going alone." I open my mouth to protest but between Duncan's fatherly make-good-choices glance, Weevil's quirked eyebrow and Logan's refusal to take no for an answer I end up agreeing to allow Logan Echolls to accompany me.
"So now that you're my bodyguard do I get to dress you up in a funny uniform?" I ask trying to break the silence that looms over us as we drive to the café.
"Hm well you can try but remember you are leaving your safety in my hands." Logan teases squinting against the sun. It's hard to combine the images of Logan Echolls heartbreaker and resident asshole with Logan Echolls abused, misunderstood son. It's so Degrassi I can hardly stand it.
"So how are you?" I've been struggling to come up with a nice segway. That is the best I can do. Really need to work on my emotional conversing skills. Logan sighs giving a slight hm before looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
"Well a little irked that I have detention with the criminal element all week." He says cheerfully before stopping at a red light. "Apperantly we didn't learn respect in the home. I guess my father wasn't trying hard enough." Logan tries to play anything remotely serious off as a joke. Maybe he's worried that I'll do the same.
"It isn't your fault Logan."I barely recognize the sound of my own voice. His eyes shift casually between me and the street. He doesn't want to have this conversation. His knuckles are turning white from gripping the steering wheel and he's hardly focused on the road.
"Yeah well try explaining that to him." Logan says with one of his trademark smiles of inevitability. He pulls in to a parking spot and shuts off the engine. "So when exactly is the shit going to uh hit the fan." He gives a small sigh my confused look. "I mean when is Daddy Mars going to come barging in demanding justice, or when is Duncan going to come by to have a 'talk'." He is worn out and his façade is slowly breaking down. His eyes staring straight ahead tell me he is too afraid to look me straight in the eye and bouncing of his knee is a trademark act of discomfort.
"That all depends on whether or not you want that to happen." Logan doesn't trust me. I'm not all that surprised but I feel like I need to have him trust me on this. "Logan I'm not going to tell anyone you don't want me to tell. If you want to get the cops involved I already told you I'd help. If you want to tell Duncan he'll say the same thing. If you don't then you have a place to go." He wants to believe me so badly but I don't think anyone has offered no-string-attached support to him before and he doesn't know if he can believe that I'm not secretly out to get him.
Logan's POV
I can feel a heavy ball of emotion in my throat as she insists all she wants to do is help. It's not that I need her help. I am almost 18 and there isn't anything she could do anyways. For some odd reason I believe her when she says that she'll keep her mouth shut. She has no reason to. I didn't pull my punches and she shouldn't either but I know she will. I try desperately to change the subject before I either feel the need to apologize or start crying in front of her. Both completely unacceptable courses of action.
"Let's go catch your stalker then." I watch with amusement as she rotates through the tables finding which one creates the same angle as one of her freaky stalker pics. If you had told me a week ago I would be playing bodyguard to Veronica Mars while she tried to figure out if there was a connection between her stalker and Lily's killer I would have said you were crazy. It doesn't take much to convince the manager to hand over the time stamped receipts and even less time for Veronica to plug the name in for a background check.
"Clarence Weidman?" Veronica says to me as she flips open her laptop. "Do you know the name." Something about the same seems vaguely familiar and makes me slightly nervous.
"Uh I think I've heard it before." I say raking my memory for the source of the familiar name as we head over to the Kane estate. Turns out Duncan does know Clarence Weidman. One look at his surprised face as he reviews the receipts grimly is all the confirmation I need that things are about to get really, really bad.
Veronica POV
"So let me get this straight." I asked looking intently between a disbelieving Duncan and an alarmed Logan. "Clarence Weidman, the head of security at Kane Software, bullied my mom in to leaving town by sending her surveillance photos of me." I don't both to hide my shocked expression as I sink down on the Kane's couch between the two distraught boys.
"This is beyond fucked up." Logan says with a wry laugh. "I guess I should reconsider my position on conspiracy theories." For all of Logan's bad boy habits and family issues he was still an unbelievably optimistic person. Not in the standard everything-will-turn-out-well way but in the sense that he once he discovered the people he decided were good guys turned out to be the villains it crushed him. Logan loves the Kanes. He has a key to their door, a toothbrush in the holder and Celeste remembers his birthday this made him and extension of their family. A place Logan could go to escape his own because even if the Kane's weren't perfect he never had to worry Jake would strike him.
It takes a little effort to convince Duncan to not jump in his car and head straight for his Dad's office demanding answers. It was Logan's rational argument: if he did kill Lily, did Duncan think he was going to draw the moral line at killing him? that finally convinced a reluctant Duncan to stay put.
Trying to sleep was basically pointless. Logan calls me at 11 to make sure that I am alive. My only response is to tell him that if he wakes me up again people will be wondering the same of him. Not even half an hour later the phone rings with an on edge Duncan telling me that nothing seems out of the ordinary. You can imagine how much the phone call was appreciated.
The crowd around the flagpole made me groan inwardly. Another poor kid stupid enough to piss of the PCHers. Switchblade ready I walk to the flagpole to find…Mr Daniels car? It doesn't take a genius to figure out who's responsible. I look from Weevil to Logan who are both standing in the doorway
watching the scene from afar, smug smiles fixed on both their faces. I give them a half-smile and disbelieving head shake with Logan returns with a mile-wide grin.
Wallace is at an away game leaving me, Duncan and Logan alone at the table. Duncan hasn't sat at the 09er table for weeks and Logan is beginning to frequent our table more often.
"So did you hear they suspended that Navarro kid?" Duncan says conversationally digging in to the pizza. He shakes his head with a laugh "I didn't know the expelled people at our school." Logan has the good sense to avoid my eye contact.
"Wait they expelled him?" Logan asks quietly the guilt in his voice poorly hidden.
"Yeah" Duncan fails to see the troubled expression on Logan's face and continues telling the story with an animated expression. " I was in the office getting my schedule changed and you could hear Daniels blowing a fuse." He finishes his pizza than points a finger in Logan's face for emphasis "Tell us who helped you! Tell us who helped you! Anyways they have yet to actually change my schedule so I will see you two later." Duncan takes another piece of pizza and leaves me and very contrite Logan sitting alone at the lunch table.
"I'll fix it." He says without making eye contact with me. I'm guessing he thinks I'm going to go off on a tirade about the unfairness of Weevil's suspension or the irresponsibility of the prank. Personally I thought it was ingenious.
"I know." He's surprised at my response and studies my face for traces of sarcasm.
"You don't just do good things because Duncan or I force you too." It is almost hard to believe that someone can have as little regard for themselves as Logan and portray such a cocky façade. "You're not a bad guy Logan." Ok so heart-to-hearts with Logan Echolls aren't exactly my idea of a good time but someone's got to tell him. As I expected he doesn't respond to my honest comment, just gives an apprehensive smile and a curt nod before walking off to free Weevil from expulsion.
Logan's POV
Can the girl pick a side? On one hand she's a vindictive bitch, on the other hand she has not made a single comment to anyone about my father when she had every reason to shout it to the world. One minute she's cutting to me to pieces with her wit and two seconds later she's telling me she thinks I'm "not a bad guy" with such sincerity that I almost believe it. Veronica Mars, the great anomaly.
As I expected it doesn't take much to get Weevil reinstated. A flash of my father's boots from Hair Trigger and we're painting over graffiti. Weevil let's me pick which paint roller I want and makes no comments about my wealth or my father. I think that's Mexican for thank you. The very unsteady almost truce we have is broken when I see a tattoo on his arm. More specifically a tattoo of a heart with the name Lilly bannered across it.
"What is that?" I angrily pull down his wife beater
"It's my arm dawg." Weevil says quickly pulling away from my grasp
"Why do you have Lily's name tattooed on your arm." I'm right in his face now causing the biker to drop his roller and face off.
"You really wanna know? If he thinks that's going to cause me to back down he obviously doesn't know me or my father.
"Yeah" My voice raises an octave threatening to give away the twisting feeling in the pit of my stomach. He's starring at me hard for a moment deciding whether or not to tell me what I already have figured out
"Lily's my sister's name, man. That ok with you?" He's lying.
Veronica POV
I'm half-way through the Big Lebowski when I hear a rather frantic knock at the door. I open to reveal a bloody nosed Logan looking…angry?
"Did you know?" He asks storming in enraged. I am so glad my father is chasing a bail jumper because the tone of Logan's voice alone would get him kicked out otherwise. Between trying to see if he is injured anywhere else and trying to figure out what I supposedly know I cannot come up with a remotely witty retort.
"Do I know what?" I ask trying to touch his face to gage the amount of damage done. He immediately shakes my hand away and looks as though he is trying to find something to break. This would be the prime time to calm him down. "Do I know what Logan?" I ask again softer this time trying to break through the thick bubble of rage that is wrapped around him.
"Lily and Weevil did you know they were…" He looks pained as he tries to find the words. "they were I don't know something." He is shaking with rage at the thought of someone else betraying him and he is so busy seeing red that he misses my expression of utter disbelief.
"Lily and Weevil?!" I repeat more for my benefit than his. Unfortunately this does nothing to pacify him and he pounds the countertop causing Back-up to growl.
"Back-up chill." I command and the dog continues to eye Logan who looks slightly abashed. "I knew – know nothing about Lily and Weevil. Like before you guys dated?" Part of me is still the naïve girl who doesn't believe Lily would even consider cheating on Logan.
"I'm thinking more like during" He basically spits out. "Don't play this you had to know. You were her best friend." I think Logan wants to believe that I did know. That his maniacal witch hunt he has conducted over the past year held some sort of karmatic justice.
"Logan I swear I had-have no idea." Logan's heavy, angry breaths are beginning to slow and his wild pacing has stopped. He's bracing himself on the kitchen counter his back turned to me. I'm partially glad
he can't see my face but I know he needs to look in to my eyes to believe me. I walk towards him and lightly put a hand on his shoulder causing him to look at me. "I didn't know. If I did I would have told you." I force myself to keep eye contact as his brown eyes bore into me while he judges my sincerity. Half-way between relieved that I didn't betray him and broken-up over Lily's infidelity he nods helplessly sinking down on one of the kitchen counters. All his anger expended.
"Weevil give you the bloody nose and matching shiner?" I ask as I wet one of the tea towels. He doesn't speak until I blot the blood away from his nose and hand him a bad of frozen peas for his eye.
"No" He says emotionlessly before getting up to leave. "See you tomorrow Veronica." I take the opportunity to ask the devil to reserve the hottest corner in hell for Aaron Echolls and before I can stop him, Logan is out the door.
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